Barbury Camp Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABAB CDCDCD EFEFEF GHGHIJ KLMLKL NBCBCB NOPONO QFQFQF NLNLNL| We burrowed night and day with tools of lead | A |
| Heaped the bank up and cast it in a ring | B |
| And hurled the earth above And Caesar said | A |
| Why it is excellent I like the thing | B |
| We who are dead | A |
| Made it and wrought and Caesar liked the thing | B |
| - | |
| And here we strove and here we felt each vein | C |
| Ice bound each limb fast frozen all night long | D |
| And here we held communion with the rain | C |
| That lashed us into manhood with its thong | D |
| Cleansing through pain | C |
| And the wind visited us and made us strong | D |
| - | |
| Up from around us numbers without name | E |
| Strong men and naked vast on either hand | F |
| Pressing us in they came And the wind came | E |
| And bitter rain turning grey all the land | F |
| That was our game | E |
| To fight with men and storms and it was grand | F |
| - | |
| For many days we fought them and our sweat | G |
| Watered the grass making it spring up green | H |
| Blooming for us And if the wind was wet | G |
| Our blood wetted the wind making it keen | H |
| With the hatred | I |
| And wrath and courage that our blood had been | J |
| - | |
| So fighting men and winds and tempests hot | K |
| With joy and hate and battle lust we fell | L |
| Where we fought And God said Killed at last then What | M |
| Ye that are too strong for heaven too clean for hell | L |
| God said stir not | K |
| This be your heaven or if ye will your hell | L |
| - | |
| So again we fight and wrestle and again | N |
| Hurl the earth up and cast it in a ring | B |
| But when the wind comes up driving the rain | C |
| Each rain drop a fiery steed and the mists rolling | B |
| Up from the plain | C |
| This wild procession this impetuous thing | B |
| - | |
| Hold us amazed We mount the wind cars then | N |
| Whip up the steeds and drive through all the world | O |
| Searching to find somewhere some brethren | P |
| Sons of the winds and waters of the world | O |
| We who were men | N |
| Have sought and found no men in all this world | O |
| - | |
| Wind that has blown here always ceaselessly | Q |
| Bringing if any man can understand | F |
| Might to the mighty freedom to the free | Q |
| Wind that has caught us cleansed us made us grand | F |
| Wind that is we | Q |
| We that were men make men in all this land | F |
| - | |
| That so may live and wrestle and hate that when | N |
| They fall at last exultant as we fell | L |
| And come to God God may say Do you come then | N |
| Mildly enquiring is it heaven or hell | L |
| Why Ye were men | N |
| Back to your winds and rains Be these your heaven and hell | L |
Charles Hamilton Sorley
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Barbury Camp poem by Charles Hamilton Sorley
Best Poems of Charles Hamilton Sorley